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enough to allow us time to see who had blown in.
"Go," I told Thai Dei. We did not need to hold a conference.
Thai Dei encountered a pair of Taglians immediately. I jumped out and drove
one away. Ky Gota wobbled out behind us. She stuck the tip of her spearhead
into the throat of the nearest Taglian. Then she settled the child more
comfortably on her hip, turned on the other soldier.
A white crow swooped past, laughing like a troop of monkeys.
The surviving Taglian was not a foolish young man. He headed for the nearest
gang of his countrymen.
"Go! Go!" I barked at Thai Dei. "Gota. Sahra. Follow Thai Dei. Uncle! Where
are you? We're gonna leave your ass here."
Uncle Doj stepped outside as the Taglian pointed us out to his comrades. "Take
the child away, Standardbearer. Ash Wand will be your shield."
He put on an amazing display though I glimpsed only a few furious moments.
That funny little wide man took on the whole mob of Taglians and killed six of
them in about as many seconds. The rest took off.
Then we splashed into the alley. We reached safety moments later. In minutes
One-Eye was working on the wounded children, albeit not cheerfully. And I was
deploying some of the Old Crew, with Goblin, for a limited counterattack.
Chapter 72
That night was the final watershed. There was never any pretense of friendship
with Mogaba again. I had no doubts myself that he would have come after us if
the "mistaken" attack on the Nyueng Bao had been a success.
Fighting continued until the water got too deep.
Despite insistence by One-Eye and others that protecting the Nyueng Bao was
not our mission I did salvage a third of the pilgrims, about six hundred
people. The cost of the attack to Mogaba was bitter. The following morning
most of the remaining Taglians found themselves in positions where they had to
commit for or against Mogaba.
The Taglians who had been with us from the beginning stuck with us. So did
those who had deserted to join us. More came over from Mogaba's side now but
not a tenth as many as I expected. Tell the truth, I was disappointed. But
Mogaba could make a hell of a speech to the troops when he wanted.
"It's that old time curse again," Goblin told me. "Even now they're more
afraid of yesterday than they are of now."
And the water kept rising.
I took the Nyueng Bao down into our warrens. Uncle Doj was amazed. "We never
suspected."
"Good. Then neither do our enemies, whose brilliance is eclipsed by yours." I
brought the Old Crew inside, too. We packed people in as comfortably as we
could. The warrens were quite spacious for sixty men. Adding six hundred
Nyueng Bao did cramp things some.
We had to learn to recognize one another, too. My men had been trained to
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strike instantly at any unfamiliar face encountered underground.
I went back outside after darkness fell. Thai Dei and Uncle Doj dogged me. I
assembled the Taglian officers who had attached themselves to the Old Crew. I
told them, "I believe that we have done all we can here. I believe it is time
to begin evacuating everyone who wants to get out of this hellhole." I did not
know why but was convinced that not much work would be required to evade or
outwit the Shadowlander pickets ashore. "I will send one of my wizards to
cover you."
They did not buy it. One captain wondered aloud if I intended to drive them
into slavery so I could make it easier to feed my own men.
I had not thought this through, had not considered possible difficulties. I
had forgotten that many of these men had attached themselves to us only
because they believed that that was their best shot at staying alive. "Never
mind. If you guys want to stay and die with us we'll be happy to have you. I
was just trying to release you from your soldier's oaths so you would have
some chance."
After dark, too, we let the Nyueng Bao men go back home to look for salvage
and survivors and stores. They did not find much. Mogaba's soldiers had been
thorough in their own search and the water had risen to cover everything.
Mogaba's men, using makeshift boats and rafts, began attacking Jaicuri
occupied buildings one by one, harvesting stores forced out of hiding by the
rising water.
Mogaba had drowned his own supplies.
Chapter 73
When I was sure nobody would notice I pulled all my brothers inside. We bolted
up and locked up and left Dejagore to its misery. We took the Nyueng Bao
survivors with us. Excepting a few men who kept watch from lookouts accessible
only from inside we withdrew into the deepest, most hidden parts of the
warrens, behind booby traps and secret doors and a web of confusion spells [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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